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NEW YORK, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- World crude oil prices
plummeted to their lowest levels this year Friday, after the International
Energy Agency downgraded the world demand forecast.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery
in March, lost 78 cents to close at 61.84 dollars per barrel.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March
delivery fell 1.11 dollars to end at 59.64 dollars per barrel.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the March heating oil
slid 2.21 cents to close at 1.6426 dollars a gallon, while March gasoline lost
5.22 cents to settle at 1.4621 dollars a gallon. Natural gas fell 16.3 cents to
7.316 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.
On Friday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency
predicted worldwide demand for oil in 2006 would increase by 1.78 million
barrels a day instead of its previous projection of 1.83 million.
It pinned the big year-end demand drop on high energy
prices, mild U.S. weather that cut heating demand, and market disruptions
stemming from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States.
Crude futures prices gained almost nine percent in January
and hit 69.20 dollars in New York on January 23 but have since declined on
rising US energy inventories and milder than expected weather in the northern
hemisphere winter. U.S. National Climatic Data Center said last month was
America's warmest January on record.
Cold weather is expected to return to the Northeast, the
nation's largest market for heating fuels, this weekend. Below-normal
temperatures are projected across the western, central and northeastern U.S.
from Feb. 14 to 18, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.
U.S. gasoline inventories jumped 4.3 million barrels, more
than double analysts' consensus forecasts of a 1.6-million-barrel build, to
223.3 million in the week to February 3. U.S. crude inventories remain nearly 11
percent higher than year-ago levels, and distillate inventories are 12 percent
higher, according to EIA's report released Wednesday. Enditem | 
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